Everything you need to know about CMYK

As I sit here in my CMYK shirt writing this post, I must confess I'm a bit of a book design nerd. I’ve been hooked since I first started working on Princess Pretend and The Not Knight and haven't gone back since. Book design ranges from fonts on pages to covers and to a lesser extent, illustrations, and book design can make or break a book. If that last line made you a little nervous don't worry, design CAN be learned with research and practice, which is where this post comes in. Now, the foundation for virtually all book design starts with CMYK, which is just a more complex was of saying ink. Everything that's printed or drawn in paper with ink is in CMYK, so you can imagine it's pretty crucial to understand, especially in this field.  Without further adieu, here's the answers to some of the biggest questions about CMYK.

What does CMYK stand for?

CMYK stands for Cyan (blue), Magenta (pink), Yellow, and Key (black).

What is CMYK?

These four colors are used to make up every single color in print, as well as other mediums like markers or paint. They are like more advanced and accurate primary colors and in different mixes, they can make up thousands of different colors. Now I know what you're thinking “What about Red, Blue and Yellow?!? Those are the primary colors!” I mean yeah, but have you ever gone to make purple paint with red and blue and gotten maroon? The colors used in CMYK are much more accurate when its comes to mixing, so they're the ones used in the printing world.

What's the difference between CMYK and RGB?

CMYK is ink. Each percentage of each color translates to a color a printer can print. RGB (red, green, blue) along with other coloring sets are reserved for things on computers or screens like animations or ads, things that won't be printed out. RGB is made by combining different opacities of these colors and shining a light behind them. These combine differently than paint or ink and so it can seem unpredictable when mixing colors. However, since RGB is in screens there's a much wider range of colors available than in CMYK. You CANNOT print RGB and get the same colors you see on your screen. Make sure anything getting printed in your book (designs, illustrations etc.) are in CMYK from the beginning because conversions between the two can be iffy at best, dull and inaccurate at the worst.

How does this work?

Unless you're coloring all your illustrations by hand, chances are you'll have to worry about mixing CMYK on a computer. So how do you mix colors virtually?

All these color sets are usually organized in sliders with programs like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Each letter has a slider that ranges from 0-100 depending on how much color you want to add. This goes pretty logically, if you want more blue, increase the C slider or if you want less K, being the slider closer to 0. Even one point can make a dramatic different, so don't underestimate the focus required here.

You can also select your colors on a color chart. You can drag your pointer all over all the available colors and select the one your like.

Rich black vs. Key

K (key) is just the color black, while rich black uses bits of CM and Y as well to create a deeper, darker, richer color that's often preferred. However, it's recommended to avoid using rich black for really small lines and sections because the colors tend to run.

Well, I hope this helps clear some of the confusion! If you have any other questions or anything to add, leave it in the comments below!